The Judge and the Minister

May 23

We started our day with a trip to the courthouse for our preliminary hearing. We were surprised to find out just before we entered the courtroom that our translator, Olga, was not permitted to go with us. Apparently, we must have an independent translator who has no interest in the outcome of the case. If we have leaned anything from this process, it is to expect the unexpected, so while we were surprised, we were not unsettled. I was just hoping that whoever it was would be good because it can be difficult to look attentively at someone speaking another language to you while listening to the person sitting next to you give the translation. Our translator turned out to be excellent. She is an English professor at the local university. She was very  fluent , and she was very careful to ensure we understood all the proceedings. 

When we adopted Riley, we only had one day in court so we didn't know what to expect with a two day hearing. Today the judge established the basic facts of the case and reviewed each of our documents. That's right, each and every document I spent years compiling (well, not really that long but it sure felt like it.) At one point, the judge wanted to clarify the age of our house. She thought perhaps it was built in 1995 rather than the 1895 that was recorded on our documents. We confirmed that indeed our house is 113 years old. She replied that it did not appear to be that old. I'll take that as a compliment. Our major hearing has been set for Monday. 

We returned to our hotel in the late morning to settle in for a long weekend of absolutely nothing to do. We had a bountiful lunch of pop-tarts and beef jerky, took a little nap, and were just settling down with some reading material and the Nintendo DS when the front desk called. We were being displaced by the Minister of Culture who had unexpectedly arrived a day early. So long large comfy room. We hastily packed our belongings and transfered to our new room which is smaller than some people's walk-in closets. It is slightly wider than the bed and a little more than twice the bed's length. The bathroom is so tiny there is only one faucet for both the sink and the tub. It has a long handle on it that swivels between the two. I was certainly spoiled by our last room. It look like things will be cozy for the long weekend.

Here is our new room. I wish I would have taken pictures of the old one for comparison. Notice the amount of space between the extra chair and the desk chair in the foreground. 

This is the spacious bathroom. Notice the duel purpose faucet.